Bye bye, gym bike
Hello, road bikeIronman training isn’t easy for the pros. It’s even tougher for age groupers that need to hold down jobs, especially those trying to put an equal amount of effort into advancing a career. Add in a trans-continental emigration and it really messes with your head.
I’ve arrived in Vancouver, British Columbia – my home for at least the next two years. For a triathlete in training this seems like heaven – good roads, lots of mountains, a sea wall and path that runs for nearly 15 miles around the downtown area, including the beautiful Stanley Park, a public 50m pool that opens at 6:30am every day, all the open water you could ever need, several active tri clubs and an all-round outdoor and health-conscious culture. So in the future this place is going to be fantastic for me, but coming here, and of course the freezing weather we had in Oxford the first two weeks in January, has meant my four month programme leading to Ironman St. George has got off to a slow start. Well, I say that, but the nature of this sport and the people that do it (i.e. me) means we’re convinced we’re never training enough, that we need to be consistently doing two sessions a day instead of just one, that 30-45 minute runs need to be done at the highest tempo possible to compensate for them being so ‘short’ and that we really must find the time for more core and weights strength training.
The positive from January is that after a lazy-ish few months I’ve got back into the routine of training 6-10 times a week, including swim, bike (either turbo trainer or hotel gym bike...yawn) and run. The negative is that the weather and the move across the Atlantic and prairies has severely limited the long slow miles I’d like to have done on my bike as base training. In fact, I haven’t been on my bike since the second weekend in December when I went for one last brick, for old time’s sake, with Dave in Reading, Henley, Pishill, Nettlebed etc. After that it was Christmas and New Year, then snow, then frozen snow and then a flight to Canada on 12th January. My bike followed by air freight and actually arrived yesterday morning. I can’t wait to get out on it – first ride will be with the Pacific Spirit Tri Club on Saturday. I need them to show me some routes and teach me how to cycle on the right hand side of the road. I’m going to look the part as I have a new Gore windstopper and dhb bib tights that I got for Christmas to try out.
After saying last year, after too many long bikes and runs in the British winter, that 31st May (Ironman Brazil 2009) was the earliest I’d ever do a long course race while living in the northern hemisphere, I’ve gone back on my word and been seduced by the chance to enter the first ever IMSG (Utah), which runs on 1st May 2010. An Ironman in the US has long appealed as the over the top nature of some Americans is exactly what I need from spectators eight miles into the run, plus the USA is the home of the sport and I expect them to know how to organise a top notch event. But the established races there are tough to enter due to a mixture of popularity and very few spaces for overseas athletes, which is why I jumped at IMSG when it was announced (with no track record or priority lists) early last year. That it’s now only a two and a half hour flight and two hour drive, instead of an eight hour flight plus drive away just makes it even better. And a weekend in Vegas after the race seems a pretty good way to wind down.
So that’s the short term target. It’s going to be hot and hilly – early afternoon temperatures could top 100 and apparently less than a mile of the run course is on the flat – but this one is all about notching another for experience and building a big foundation that I can layer speed onto for a fast time, for me, at Ironman Switzerland on 25th July.
I’ll add the occasional update here on how my training is going. It’ll be taking in a few half marathons in British Columbia, including the Shamrock ‘n’ Race St. Patrick’s Day special next month, so I’m sure there’ll be stories to tell.
I’ve arrived in Vancouver, British Columbia – my home for at least the next two years. For a triathlete in training this seems like heaven – good roads, lots of mountains, a sea wall and path that runs for nearly 15 miles around the downtown area, including the beautiful Stanley Park, a public 50m pool that opens at 6:30am every day, all the open water you could ever need, several active tri clubs and an all-round outdoor and health-conscious culture. So in the future this place is going to be fantastic for me, but coming here, and of course the freezing weather we had in Oxford the first two weeks in January, has meant my four month programme leading to Ironman St. George has got off to a slow start. Well, I say that, but the nature of this sport and the people that do it (i.e. me) means we’re convinced we’re never training enough, that we need to be consistently doing two sessions a day instead of just one, that 30-45 minute runs need to be done at the highest tempo possible to compensate for them being so ‘short’ and that we really must find the time for more core and weights strength training.
The positive from January is that after a lazy-ish few months I’ve got back into the routine of training 6-10 times a week, including swim, bike (either turbo trainer or hotel gym bike...yawn) and run. The negative is that the weather and the move across the Atlantic and prairies has severely limited the long slow miles I’d like to have done on my bike as base training. In fact, I haven’t been on my bike since the second weekend in December when I went for one last brick, for old time’s sake, with Dave in Reading, Henley, Pishill, Nettlebed etc. After that it was Christmas and New Year, then snow, then frozen snow and then a flight to Canada on 12th January. My bike followed by air freight and actually arrived yesterday morning. I can’t wait to get out on it – first ride will be with the Pacific Spirit Tri Club on Saturday. I need them to show me some routes and teach me how to cycle on the right hand side of the road. I’m going to look the part as I have a new Gore windstopper and dhb bib tights that I got for Christmas to try out.
After saying last year, after too many long bikes and runs in the British winter, that 31st May (Ironman Brazil 2009) was the earliest I’d ever do a long course race while living in the northern hemisphere, I’ve gone back on my word and been seduced by the chance to enter the first ever IMSG (Utah), which runs on 1st May 2010. An Ironman in the US has long appealed as the over the top nature of some Americans is exactly what I need from spectators eight miles into the run, plus the USA is the home of the sport and I expect them to know how to organise a top notch event. But the established races there are tough to enter due to a mixture of popularity and very few spaces for overseas athletes, which is why I jumped at IMSG when it was announced (with no track record or priority lists) early last year. That it’s now only a two and a half hour flight and two hour drive, instead of an eight hour flight plus drive away just makes it even better. And a weekend in Vegas after the race seems a pretty good way to wind down.
So that’s the short term target. It’s going to be hot and hilly – early afternoon temperatures could top 100 and apparently less than a mile of the run course is on the flat – but this one is all about notching another for experience and building a big foundation that I can layer speed onto for a fast time, for me, at Ironman Switzerland on 25th July.
I’ll add the occasional update here on how my training is going. It’ll be taking in a few half marathons in British Columbia, including the Shamrock ‘n’ Race St. Patrick’s Day special next month, so I’m sure there’ll be stories to tell.
